MARIA MONTESSORI 1

Maria Montessori and Her Legacy in Education

Joni M. Albarico

MA (Physics Education)

University of the Philippines

 MARIA MONTESSORI 2

Maria Montessori and Her Legacy in Education

Perhaps, the name Montessori has been ubiquitously heard in most of the world‟s

educational system. Maria Montessori, a world-renowned leader in early childhood education,

constructed an educational philosophy and method based on empirical studies in medicine,

anthropology and pedagogy. Her method has been adopted by most of the early childhood

educational institutions for it extolled a structured and orderly environment where children could

work individually with self-correcting materials (Ozmon, 2008, p. 63).

Aside from her fascinating and enduring legacy in the educative process, Montessori is

also considered as an epitome as women empowerment. She successfully overcame many of the

barriers that limited women‟s educational opportunities in the late 19 th and early 20th centuries

(Gutek, 2011, p. 386). She was one of a few women who chose to deviate from the normal

tradition that women should be confined as homemakers and are not entitled to formal education.

This paper presents the enduring legacy of Maria Montessori in the field of education –

how she recognized childhood as a crucial stage for learning, introduced a method of education

based on a well-prepared environment and surpassed the deprived privileges and discriminatory

practices against women during her time.

Montessori’s Social Milieu: At a Glance

This part presents the major trends in historical context in which Maria Montessori lived.

Such turn of events were considered to be the foundations of her philosophy of education and

method of teaching.
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Historical and Cultural Setting of Montessori’s Life

Montessori was born 10 years after Italy became a united nation. It was a time when Italy

gained statehood through liberalism and nationalism. This time was also characterized with the

annexation of the Papal States to Italy including Vatican City.

Postrisorgimiento Italy was characterized with social and economic changes generated by

modernization and urbanization. Because of this, strong regional differences were highly

observed – a demarcation line separates the industrial north of Italy and the highly agricultural

and peasantry-dominated south of Italy. This later turned to migration of peasants to cities of

Rome and Milan. This resulted to overpopulation in the cities that resulted to the prevalence of

poverty in some parts of the city. In one of the Rome‟s poverty-stricken districts, San Lorenzo,

Montessori established her first school – Casa dei Bambini.

Aside from political and economic situations, the culture to which Montessori was

accustomed was also a precursor for developing her educational philosophy and method.

Conservatism was the trend during her time. Social roles one would play were inherited across

time and generations. Therefore, one‟s education is predestined by his family‟s social status.

Luckily, Montessori was able to attend formal schooling since her family belonged to the middle

stratum of the Italian society.

However, Montessori also lived in a time where women‟s niche in the society was even

more fixed by custom and tradition. Women were expected to play the central role as

homemakers. Higher and professional education was virtually closed to women. But Montessori

would deviate from this dictum. She was able to attend technical secondary school and medical

school – a move that was highly masculine.

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Italy’s Educational System

The Italian educational system in the late 19 th century followed the continental European

socioeconomic class-determined pattern (Gutek, 2011, p. 388). Primary education was

established through the Cassati Law. Although mandated, primary education was not

compulsory. This resulted to high illiteracy rate especially in the southern region of Italy which

was highly dominated by peasants.

Secondary education was organized into specialized schools. This includes preparatory

school for highly academic college popularly known as liceo. There were also technical and

vocational schools.

Conventional schooling in Italy was teacher-centered. This means that the teacher is

considered to be the central instructional agent. Children were exposed to traditional teaching

methods which included rote memorization of textbooks, recitation and dictation. Likewise,

children in Italian schools often used a single textbook that combined in one volume all the

subjects taught. Instruction stressed routine and discouraged spontaneity and creativity.

This scenarios would put Montessori‟s lens to view another method of education that

would encourage joy, spontaneous and functional learning.

Prevalent Educational Thoughts during Montessori’s Time

Montessori was both a pragmatist and a visionary (Lillard, 1996). Her philosophy was

based upon the observation of children in diverse cultures and in many countries. Studies on the

Montessori Method show that Montessori‟s philosophy was highly influenced by the prevalent

educational thoughts during her time. These include Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel.

Both Montessori and Rousseau believed that education must be based on natural

principles – that the learners should be exposed to their natural environment. However,
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Montessori became skeptical with Rousseau‟s belief that children learn best by following their

instincts and impulses in an unstructured learning environment. This would later lead Montessori

to devise a more structured learning environment (Gutek, 2011, p. 389). Montessori contended

that there should be limited freedom on the part of the learner.

The environment of a Montessori classroom characterized with different didactic

materials and apparatus was highly influenced by Pestalozzi‟s educational thought. Pestalozzi‟s

ideas stressed the importance of sensation and the use of objects in the learning process. His

educational theory urged the reform of school into homelike places where children held

emotionally secure and learned by using their senses in specially designed object lessons (Gutek,

2011, p. 389). Pestalozzi‟s ideas on education became the solid foundations of Montessori‟s

method of teaching.

Montessori was also exposed to Froebel‟s philosophy of education – the kindergarten

movement. They both believed that early childhood education should take place in a specially

constructed learning environment. Just like Froebel, Montessori believed in the idealist notion

that children‟s innate spiritual powers would be developed most effectively in an educational

environment. This would later result to Montessori‟s didactic approach to early childhood

education. Montessori‟s philosophy would also be compared to that of Froebel.

It is clearly seen the influence of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel on the development of

Montessori Method of teaching. Despite Montessori‟s similarities to the educational thoughts of

these three educators, she found their theory relied more on philosophical speculations rather

than scientific understanding of children based on empirical clinical observation. Montessori‟s

medical background and engagement in studying physical anthropology would later establish the

universal principles of human growth and development and link it to the process by which
 MARIA MONTESSORI 6

humans acquire information. One of the major features of her educational theory was the use of

measurements such as anatomical and morphological variations in humans.

The Life of Maria Montessori

This part of the paper discusses the biographical sketch of Maria Montessori and its

impact on the development of an educational philosophy and method that revolutionized the

concept of early childhood education.

The Genesis

Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870 in Chiaraville, Ancona (a province in

Italy). She is the only child of Alessandro Montessori and Renilde Stopani. She came from a

middle-class family. This was one of the reasons why Maria was able to deviate from the norm

that women cannot pursue higher education. Her parents were dominant people in the society.

Signor Montessori, a business manager, gave his family a secure and comfortable social status in

the Italian middle class (Gutek, 2011, p. 391). He was a conservative man and was very reluctant

to change. He maintained the attitudes and values of an Italian-styled Victorian respectability.

Her mother, Renilde, was a traditionally-educated middle class woman. She was more accepting

of change and more willing to break with tradition than her husband. This was considered as one

of the factors that pushed Maria to pursue higher education.

Montessori’s Educational Background

Primary and secondary education.

Little Maria attended the primary school on the Via di San Nicolo de Tolentino.

Her primary schooling followed the traditional approached where students acquired

knowledge through memorization, recitation and dictation. Gutek (2011) inferred that this

exposure to rote methods of teaching urged Montessori to devise an educational method

MARIA MONTESSORI 7

that would emphasize children‟s freedom to explore their environment and spontaneously

discover knowledge.

After finishing primary school, Maria Montessori decided to pursue her secondary

education in technical secondary school – a decision that was considered a radical

deviation during her time. Middle-class women during her time usually attended a normal

or finishing school. In 1883, Montessori enrolled in the Regia Scuola Technica

Michaelangelo Buonarroti. She had intensive studies in a seven-year curriculum that

included Italian literature, mathematics (algebra and geometry), sciences (chemistry and

physics), history and geography. Just like in primary school, Maria was exposed to

traditional teaching methods. She graduated in 1886 obtaining a grade of 137 out of 150

points.

Higher education.

Maria‟s enduring passion for learning motivated her to pursue higher and medical

education. However, before being admitted, she faced challenges that would strengthen

her persistence and determination to enter medical school.

In 1886, she enrolled in the Regio Instituto Technico Leonardo da Vinci. She

pursued studies on engineering – a program dominated by male students. However, in

1890, she decided to leave engineering for medicine.

During her first attempt to apply for admission in the medical school, the all-male

faculty of the University of Rome‟s School of Medicine rejected her. But she never gave

up. She reapplied for her admission. Her persistent reapplication forced the medical

faculty to accept her application during the fall of 1890. This gave her the distinction to

become the first woman to attend medical school. Since medicine was a dominated by
 MARIA MONTESSORI 8

male students, Maria faced some regulations and practices that were highly

discriminating.

During her last two years of medical school, she studied pediatrics at the

Children‟s Pediattri Hospital. She had special interest on mental retardation and other

psychological disorders in children (Ozmon, 2008, p. 63). This could have moved her in

the direction of a career in early childhood education.

In 1896, she was granted the doctor of medicine degree. She became the first

Italian physician.

Montessori’s Medical Career

After earning the medical degree, Maria volunteered as an assistant physician at the

University of Rome‟s Clinica Psychiatrica. While doing her work in the clinic, she also

conducted a research entitled “A Clinical Contribution to the Study of Delusions of Persecution.”

This was considered Montessori‟s moving lifetime commitment to children‟s psychology and

education.

While conducting her research on mentally handicapped children, she encountered the

publications of two French physician and psychologists named Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard and

Edouard Seguin. Their research work developed methods for helping both mentally deficient and

deaf children. Encounters with their research findings brought great impact to Montessori‟s view

of education.

Itard was a specialist in otiatria and had worked with deaf and hearing-impaired children

through clinical observations. He became famous on his case study on the wild boy of Aveyron,

a feral youth boy apparently abandoned or lost as a child who was found living with animals in

the forests. This is the same with the story of the famous non-fiction Tarzan. At about age 12, the
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boy did not speak and had no practical skills. He postulated that human beings went through

specific, definite and necessary developmental stages. They experience their stages of

development by engaging in activities for which they were physiologically ready. They should

be able to accomplish it in every developmental stage or else they will be left with deficits and

they will suffer the drawbacks of continual and cumulative impairment. Itard‟s study was also

noted with the use of empirical observation.

On the other hand, Seguin worked with mentally impaired children at the Hospice de

Bicetre – a training school for children from the income asylums of Paris. Upon his studies on

mentally handicapped children, he believed that institutions for handicapped children should be

centers for training and education. Both medical and pedagogical knowledge should be used in

treating handicapping condition. Likewise, Seguin was noted for the use of physiological

observations and clinical observations to diagnose conditions and prescribe remedial treatment.

Part of his remedial treatment of handicapping condition in children is devising didactic

materials and apparatus to train the senses and improve the physical skills to develop some

degree of independence.

After doing her research on mentally handicapped children and encounters with the

publications of Itard and Seguin, Montessori became engaged in studying how human learn. This

later shifted her interest from medicine to pedagogical studies. She adopted some of the practices

of Itard and Seguin in her work. She was able to develop two important principles which became

the foundation of teaching method and philosophy (Gutek, 2011, p. 393).

1. Mental deficiency required a special kind of education as well as medical treatment.

2. The special kind of education for mentally deficient children was facilitated by using

didactic materials and apparatus.

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In September 1898, Montessori presented her ideas on the education of mentally retarded

children to the Pedagogical Congress in Turin. During the time, the concept of mental retardation

was still not clearly defined and children with this condition are classified as physiologically

impaired and are often called as “laggards” or delinquents. During her presentation, she

emphasized,

“Mentally impaired children should not be confined should not be confined in insane

asylums with adults. Instead, they should be housed in educational institutions that will provide

services of a psychiatrist and a pediatrician as well as educational specialists who could diagnose

each child‟s problem and design an individualized learning prescription for each child.”

After the results of her study, she made a bold decision (Lillard, 1996). She left the

practice of medicine and embraced the lucrative career of education.

Early Career in Education

In 1900, the Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica (Ortophrenic School) was opened with Maria

Montessori and Dr. Guiseppe Montesano as codirectors (Gutek, 2011, p. 393). The school served

as training center for teachers to prepare them to educate children with handicapping condition.

Montessori directed the institution for two years.

Children in the Ortophrenic School were considered to be “uneducable” and they came

from orphanages, asylums, hospitals and schools. Montessori was interested in the development

of these children as human beings rather than as school children. She was also concerned with

their complete health, both physical and spiritual. She began to reach their minds and especially

as their minds related to the control of their bodies in behavior.

During her directorship at the Ortophrenic School, Montessori and Dr. Montesano

developed an intimate relationship. She became pregnant and bore a son named Mario. The
MARIA MONTESSORI 11

infant was sent to live a wet nurse in the country to avoid scandal at the Ortophrenic School.

Montesano offered Montessori marriage however his family opposed it. Because of this, he made

it to a condition of legally granting his name that the birth remain secret, except for family

members. Montessori accepted his proposal. Montesano later married another woman and

Montessori left the Ortophrenic School.

Mario, Montessori‟s son, was under the custody of the wet nurse until her death. After his

wet nurse‟s death, Mario came to live with her biological mother. He was first presented as her

nephew and then he adopted son (Gutek, 2011, p. 393). Over time, Mario would be her mother‟s

closest associate in publicizing and implementing the Montessori method.

Between 1904 and 1908, Montessori held lectures at the University of Rome‟s

Pedagogical School on the application of anthropology and biology to education. She

emphasized the importance of taking physical measurements to be used in preparing

individualized biographical empirical record of each child for educational purposes. Her lectures

were published as La Anthropologica Pedagogica (Pedagogical Anthropology). This included

pediatric medicine, psychology and cultural anthropology in children‟s development and

education.

Milestones in the Establishment of Montessori Education

After her lectures at the University of Rome, she became well-acclaimed and the

successive turn of events followed. The following were said to be the hallmarks of her growing

popularity in the field of education.

Establishment of Montessori’s First School.

In 1907, an important opportunity came for Montessori. Edouardo Talamo,

director-general of Instituto Romano di Beni Stabili – a philantrophic society engaged in

MARIA MONTESSORI 12

improving housing conditions of the poor – asked her to establish a school in a slum area

in Rome. This was the San Lorenzo Quarter and was considered as Rome‟s most

disrespectable sections. It was also known as the “world of shadows.”

The objective of setting a school in the area was to set a day care center in the

area. When parents went to work, preschool age children living in the remodeled housing

development were left unattended. But aside from this primary goal to be attained,

Montessori had more ambitious plans and seized the opportunity to create a school that

could serve as laboratory to test her ideas – the one that she used during her stay in the

State Ortophrenic School.

On January 6, 1907, Montessori established her first school in a large tenement at

Via dei Marsi 58. She named it Casa dei Bambini (Children‟s House). It had 50 children

(ages 3-7) as its first set of pupils whose families live in the tenement. She considered her

school as a school-home.

She applied one of her principles at the Casa dei Bambini – which a child‟s

maximum development and most effective learning takes place in a structured and

orderly environment. She even required parents of children attending her school to follow

some specific regulations. This included observing proper hygiene where parents are

required to have their children cleaned before sending them to school.

She also made sure that the school‟s physical arrangements were fitted to

children‟s size and needs. She did not want that classroom‟s physical arrangement restrict

children‟s freedom of movement (Gutek, 2011, p. 394). Tables and chairs were sized

based on children‟s height and weight. Washstands were accessible for younger children.

Classrooms were lined with cupboards where children could reach easily the materials
MARIA MONTESSORI 13

needed during a specific learning task and return them after use. She created a school that

would develop children‟s sensory and motor abilities, encouraged independence and self-

confidence.

Curriculum of Casa dei Bamibini

The curriculum implemented in Casa dei Bambini was based on

Montessori‟s principle that children experience crucial times in their development

or also known as sensitive periods. In this stage, children are in high state of

readiness for particular leaning activities which included sensory training,

exercising motor skills, language learning and social adaptation. At these periods,

children are provided with self-correcting didactic materials and apparatus that

they themselves select. With this, children become self-motivated and work at

their own pace with less intervention by the directress (a term used to describe a

teacher using the Montessori method of teaching).

The curriculum aimed to develop competencies in three broad areas which

included practical life skills, motor and sensory training and more formal literary

and computational skills and subjects.

Practical Skills

One of the hallmarks of Montessori education in Casa dei

Bambini is the inclusion of practical skills in the curriculum. This includes skills

needed in everyday life such as serving food, washing one‟s hands and face, tying

a shoelace or buttoning a shirt or blouse. These activities encourage independence

and self-confidence without the help or attendance of an adult.

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Publications and Growing Recognition.

Montessori‟s success at the Casa dei Bambini led to the establishment of

additional schools in Rome and other Italian cities. In 1910, Montessori described her

work at the Casa dei Bambini in “The Method of Scientific Pedagogy Applied to Infant

Education in the Children‟s Houses.” This was then retitled as “The Montessori Method”

in 1912 which was published in 11 languages.

Her publication led to more surprising turn of events. Educators from other

countries including the United States flocked to Rome to hear her lectures, interview her

and observe her schools. She had many disciples as well as detractors.

The establishment of Montessori schools became widespread in most countries

including the United States and the United Kingdom. Her method was highly praised by

different educators including Dorothy Canfield Fisher. In her book A Montessori Mother

(1912), she described Montessori school as a place where “children acquire intellectual

vigor, independence and vigor as a by-product of physical play.”

Montessori also had severe critics, most of them are Froebelian advocates and

progressive educators. Her method was described with overemphasis on individual work

to the detriment of group work and failed to cultivate children‟s imaginative, dramatic

and potential activities. Kilpatrick, Montessori‟s most severe critic, disparaged the -

Montessori method as a mid-nineteenth-century period piece that was “fifty years

behind” modern educational thought. It did not encourage the group work necessary for

sharing, democratic participation, social cooperation and problem-solving skills. Because

of these criticisms, the Montessori method faced its hiatus during the entry of World War
MARIA MONTESSORI 15

I. It would later be revived in the 1950‟s where there was an observed increase in the

establishment of hundreds of Montessori schools throughout the United States.

The Spread and Impact of Montessori Education.

Aside from the United Kingdom, the Montessori method of education had

substantial gains along the European continent. Her method was highly supported by the

Catalian regional government in Spain (Gutek, 2011, p. 399). Spain was Montessori‟s

principal base of operations from 1916-1927. There was also a time where the Spanish

government sponsored the training of teachers for the Montessori method. When the

Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Montessori left Spain.

Montessori also presented lectures in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1917. After

series of lectures, she was able to establish a headquarters in Amsterdam which became

the center for Montessori education.

Italy, in 1922, became under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. He promoted

intense Italian nationalism which drew support from leading Italian intellectuals that time

including Giovanni Gentile. Mussolini appointed Gentile as Italy‟s minister of education

in 1923. Because Gentile believed in the notion of autoeducation which was the goal of

Montessori education, he favorably adopted the Montessori method in all of Italy‟s

institutions of learning. Mussolini, likewise, liked an educational method that he believed

would instill discipline and order in children and prepare them to be soldiers in the future.

The fascist government supported Montessori‟s efforts to promote her method in schools.

There were massive trainings for teachers held in relation to the Montessori method of

education.
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However, there was a point in time that Mussolini wanted to use Montessori‟s

international movement to showcase modern Italian modern education under fascism.

Both she and Mario, however, contended that there be no deviation from the approved

pedagogical line that Montessori had instituted. She did not accept the fascist ideology

and viewed her role to be an international educator rather than a promoter of Italian

nationalism. She further contended that child‟s nature and stages of development were

universal and not determined by national, racial or ethnic origins (Gutek, 2011, p. 400).

Because of Montessori‟s refusal to cooperate with the fascist government of Mussolini,

her schools in Italy were closed and the Montessori movement was suppressed. This put

Montessori in exile.

Later Life

After Maria and her son left Spain in 1936, they relocated to the Netherlands, making

Amsterdam as the major headquarters of the Montessori movement. She continued to spread her

educational philosophy and method across the globe. She conducted training classes and

addressed conferences in Italy, the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, France, the United

Kingdom, Ireland, India and other countries.

During World War II, Montessori stayed in India, conducting a training school sponsored

by the Theosophical Society at Adyar in Madras. Despite the growing rumors between the Axis

and Allied Powers, she posed no security threat and continued to carry on her educational

activities.

When World War II ended, Montessori returned to Europe in 1946. She continued the

operations of her headquarters in Amsterdam. In 1947, she returned to her native Italy at the

invitation of the government to reestablish the Opera Montessori and help reopen Montessori
MARIA MONTESSORI 17

schools. Because of old age, Montessori delegated her work to her trusted sun and confidant,

Mario. Maria Montessori died on May 6, 1952 in Noordwijk, a small village near The Hague and

was buried in the local Catholic cemetery.

Montessori’s Philosophy and Method of Education

This part of the paper examines in detain the philosophy and method of education

established by Maria Montessori.

Goals and Philosophy of Montessori Education

Montessori concentrated upon the goal of education rather than its methods (Lillard,

1996). Known for being a physician, she incorporated medical science and anthropology to

education. Her philosophy of education was based on her conception of science, observations of

children and extensive research as revealed by the previous sections of this paper.

There are two important factors, which are often neglected, that are considered to be as

elements of Montessori education. These are the absorbent mind of the child and the educational

importance of the prepared environment.

Montessori asserted that a child‟s physiological and mental constitution endows him the

power to learn. The environment provides the necessary milieu in which human development

takes place. Through interaction with the prepared environment, children actively engage in their

own autoeducation.

Montessori also emphasized the concept of freedom in the learning process. She

emphasized that freedom did not means “doing your own thing” but rather acting within a

structured environment. Hence, Montessori education is characterized with the use of a prepared

environment specially designed for the purpose of learning.

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Montessori’s Views on the Learner

Another feature of Montessori education is the recognition of the different stages of

human formation. She represented these stages of development through four planes.
6 9 15 21

Birth 6 12 18 24
Childhood Adulthood

These planes of development focus on the learning capabilities of an individual. The peak

in each plane focuses on the time where an individual learns at its maximum pace. Specifically, it

recognizes two major regions – childhood from birth to age 12 and adulthood from age 12 to 24.

An important feature of these planes of development is the inclusion of learning activities during

periods of intense change as shown by the arrow going to the peak of each plane. This eliminated

the principle of overloading of information when a learner is growing older.

According to Montessori, three things are happening in each of the four formative planes.

First, there is a specific goal in development. Second, there is a readily identified direction being

followed to reach the goal. And lastly, there are specific sensitivities, given to human beings in

each period of development which facilitate reaching the definitive goal for that plane.

The following are the specific descriptions set by Montessori in each stage of

development.

Birth to Age 6 (Absorbent Mind).

The first stage, the period of absorbent mind, is subdivided into two phases, from

birth to age three and from ages three to six. During the first stage, children explore their
MARIA MONTESSORI 19

environment, absorb information from it, construct their concepts about reality, begin to

use language and enter the larger world of their group‟s culture.

This stage is also primarily concerned with the construction of human individual.

The child is the active stage of acquiring information spontaneously. Therefore, adult

intervention is highly discouraged during this period.

Ages 6-12 (Period of Uniform Growth).

In this stage, the skills and powers that were surfaced and developed during the

first stage are exercised, reinforced and polished. This is also characterized by

strengthening of mental faculties. Children can recognize right from wrong actions.

Ages 12-18 (Period of Transformation).

This serves as the link between childhood and adulthood. Certain physical

changes are observed on the learner and the individual strives to reach full maturity.

During the third period, they work to understand social and economic roles and find their

place in society.

The Montessori Classroom

Prior to Montessori‟s time, the teaching learning-process is two way, recognizing the

teacher and the learner as its major elements. With the establishment of the Montessori method,

the third important factor in the teaching-learning process was recognized. The presence of a

prepared learning environment in the Montessori method of teaching made significant trend in

the educative process. It is therefore essential to prepare a learning environment specially

designed for teaching children. This is because the environment of a usual home is made for

adults, and therefore adapted to the adult‟s needs and mode of living not the child‟s. The
MARIA MONTESSORI 20

Montessori method disregards the notion that childhood is a transitional stage on the road to

adulthood, and on this basis all the needs of the child‟s existence are decided by the adult.

Montessori emphasized the seven characteristics of a structured learning environment for

children (Standing, 1957, pp. 267-270).

An Environment for Independence and Growth.

One goal of the structured environment is to make a student independent to

explore ideas through absorbing the information in the environment specially prepared

for him. This makes the child active in the process. He also becomes more conscious of

his own powers. However, this does not translate to exclude his love for the adult. The

adult is also part of the structured environment.

An Environment of Protection.

The child is still an immature creature and he does not possess developed psychic

faculties, because he has yet to create them. Therefore, care should be taken in preparing

the structured environment. It must be free from possible danger. This is an important

principle to be upheld by a teacher adopting the Montessori method of teaching.

An Environment for Activity.

The environment directs the individual in absorbing the information. Having this

said, the structured environment must engage the learner in his search for knowledge and

information. It must contain the mental food necessary for the development of his psychic

embryo.

A Beautiful Environment.

One of the motto of Montessori‟s prepared environment is “the best for the

smallest.” A well-equipped Montessori classroom is indeed a beautiful sight, with many

MARIA MONTESSORI 21

low windows adorned with beautiful bright curtains, its gaily painted tables and

cupboards decorated with vases of flowers. Even materials used for each activity have

bizarre shapes and colors. Not only it creates beauty but it stimulates a child to

manipulate them.

An Environment for Liberating the Spirit.

The structured environment must not only be visually attractive. It must also

contain materials and activities that will make the mental potentials of a child go out of

its shell. A prepared environment, according to Montessori, contains the following

materials.

1. The materials necessary for the carrying out exercises of practical life and similar

occupations

2. The sensorial materials

3. The materials for the acquisition of culture – the three R‟s (reading, „riting,

„rithmetic), history, geography, art and handwork

4. Those things necessary for the development of his religious life.

Order in the Environment

A well-structured Montessori classroom follows order. Didactic materials and

apparatus are arranged properly in cupboards and cabinets. Order prevents the child from

being frustrated in a particular learning activity. It also prevents waste of energy and

establishes the rapport between the child and the environment.

The Directress

The directress, a term used to describe a teacher using the Montessori method of

teaching, is the dynamic link between the child and the prepared environment. S/he is an
MARIA MONTESSORI 22

absolutely essential part of the child‟s environment, as essential as the “material” part of

it. S/he should also teach the student the proper use of the didactic materials found in the

classroom.

The use of didactic materials is an integral part of the Montessori classroom. These

materials for sensory education aimed to develop children‟s competency in perceiving

distinctions in color and hue, smell, touch and sound and tone as well as the skills to manipulate

various objects. The didactic materials in a Montessori classroom included the following.

1. A series of solid insets – wooden cylinders of different sizes to be inserted in holes of the

same size in a wooden block

2. Ten pink wooden cubes of graduated sizes with which the child built a tower, then

knocked it down and rebuilt it

3. Ten brown wooden prisms and 10 red rods used to build a broad long stair

4. Geometric solids (pyramid, sphere and cone), little boards with rough and smooth

surfaces and others of different weights and colors, and pieces of fabrics of different

textures.

5. Wooden plane insets to be taken out and replaced correctly in their planes

6. Cards with paper geometrical shapes pasted on them and a series of cylindrical boxes

filled with different materials that produced different sounds when shaken.

7. A series of musical tone bells designed to develop tonal discrimination that were used

with a wooden board that had musical staff lines and a set of wooden disks to represent

the notes

8. Sensory boxes filled with spices with distinctive odors

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Instruction in Montessori School

The Role of the Directress

Aside from the new approach to teaching, Montessori education required a new

conception of what is meant to be a teacher. She designated a new name for the teacher –

the directress. The directress guides children without interfering. Montessori contrasted

the directress from conventional teachers who at the center of the classroom, struggle to

motivate and engage a group of children with different levels of readiness and ability.

The directress supervises what a student performs in the structured environment.

Her goal is to teach the students how to use the didactic materials and find out if they

correctly manipulate them on their own. When the student has mastered using the

material, it‟s time for the directress to lead the student to a new learning task.

Curriculum

Montessori designed a curriculum intended for early childhood education. She

believed that emphasis should be given on the nature of activities to be done by students.

Her curriculum for early childhood education included practical life skills, sensory

education, language and mathematics and more general physical, social and cultural

development.

Practical Life Skills.

These skills, as mentioned in the previous sections, aim to aid children in

achieving greater independence. Those activities are designed to do the following:

1. Care for their own bodies

2. Respect and care for the environment

3. Participate in proper social relationships

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4. Control and direct their physical movements to accomplish specific tasks.

Practical skills, likewise, include activities related to being a family

member in home, skills required for personal cleanliness and hygiene and

exercises to develop the muscles and to exercise motor coordination.

Sensory Education

This focuses on the development of children‟s sensory acuity and

sensitivity and abilities. This is being exercised in the use of didactic materials of

varying shapes and colors. Sensory education also include training to recognize

and distinguish between different sounds and tones.

Language and Mathematics.

Montessori believed that children develop language as a result of their

own spontaneous creation. They develop vocabulary by learning the names of

objects in their environment and classify them based on fixed category.

On the other hand, numeracy skills, according to Montessori can be taught

by manipulating geometrically shaped objects.

General Physical, Social and Cultural Development

General physical, social and cultural skills are learned through the

children‟s individualized physical activities, their responsibilities in caring for

plants and animals and their mutual respect for their own work and that of their

peers.

Character Education

Montessori believed that character education, like cognitive and skill

development arises from child‟s free engagement with their environment. Moral
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sense develops according to successes experienced in surmounting obstacles and

mastering challenges that occur in this interaction. She also argued that her

prepared environment is especially conducive for intellectual and moral

development in that it encourages the child to act spontaneously and freely, to

select the task and to build self-esteem by meeting and mastering the challenges

formed in a safe learning setting.

Contributions and Implications of Montessori to Education

Montessori schools are now prevalent in different educational systems across the globe. It

is clear therefore to say that Montessori‟s principles have successfully permeated modern

educational thought and practice. However, public schools seldom practice this method because

of its demand for a highly structured environment which entails cost and time for preparation.

This creates an elitist notion that Montessori method was created for the rich and middle-class

group of students. It is somewhat ironic to think that the proponent of this method first used this

in a group of children living in slum areas of Rome.

Despite these modern day criticisms on the Montessori method of education, it‟s more

appropriate to say that Montessori contributed a lot to the development of more dynamic

educational thought and practices. She called the attention to the formative significance of the

early years of childhood on later development. Montessori‟s work provided new insights and

stimulated research into child nature, stages of development and stimulated the worldwide

growing interest in early childhood education.

Gutek (2011) recognized the following as Montessori‟s enduring contributions to

education.
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1. Clear recognition of the significance of early stimulation on later learning, especially its

implications for socially and economically disadvantaged children

2. Recognizing the sensitive periods, phases of development, when certain activities and

materials are appropriate to learning specific motor and cognitive skills

3. Recognition that learning is complex and multifaceted and involves a variety of

experiences

4. Recognition that the school must be part of the community and must involve parents if

instruction is to be most effective.

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References

Britton, L. (1992) Montessori Play and Learn: A Parent‟s Guide to Purposeful Play from Two to

Six, New York: Crown Publishers Inc.

Gutek, G. (2011) Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: Selected Readings.

Columbus, Ohio: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Lillard, P. (1996) Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to

Adulthood. New York: Schocken Books Inc.

Oswald, P., G. Schulz-Benesch and L. Salmon (1997) Basic Ideas of Montessori‟s Educational

Theory: Extracts from Maria Montessori‟s Writings and Teachings. Oxford, England:

Clio Press.

Ozmon, H. (2008). Philosophical Foundations of Education, 7th edition.

Standing, E. (1957). Maria Montessori: Her Life and Works. New York: New American Library.